Just a day after the Grand Jury ruling that failed to indict killer cop Daniel Pantaleo, a demonstration began in Foley Square in New York City to express outrage. What began as a?simple protest became something much bigger. It was a rightful deviation from business as usual.
The demonstration and protest splintered off into groups shutting down major city intersections. It would have been impossible for me to hit all of them. However, the group I was with managed to temporarily shut down the Brooklyn Bridge, Broadway, and the whole North Bound section of The West Side Highway. Traffic was disrupted in response to the disrupted lives of Eric Garner’s family and countless other lives disrupted by police? violence.
I managed to speak with a few of the people demonstrating — all from different ethnic, racial, spiritual, and economic backgrounds. I am always so proud to see such a diverse of people coming together for justice. Though many had varying opinions on the solution for preventing more unpunished murders at the hands of police many things were wholeheartedly agreed upon.
We are tired of badges granting the right to murder, we are tired of seeing families destroyed and lives ended, we are tired of people of color being marked as criminals by police and the media, and we are tired of the reputations of victims being dragged through the mud to save a cop’s skin. We also agree something must change.
Furthermore, those of us who attended the march were witnessing first-hand a police force that is equipped like an occupying military and acts as such. Police helicopters were flying overhead with blinding lights, multiple vehicles of? ESU (in other cities they are called SWAT) cops armed to the teeth passed by, and? police on motorized scooters dangerously close to running down demonstrators and bystanders.
Who are these cops going to war with? The terrifying answer is us. This type of “them against the world policing” is part of the problem.
I hope the shut down streets sent a message. That message is no militarized policing, no more harassment of innocent people, no more trampling our rights, and above all no more cops getting away with murder. If not, I hope we keeping shutting down the streets nation wide until the powers that be listen and fix this. “IT STOPS TODAY”-ERIC GARNER RIP
See my photos below.
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David Christopher is a veteran, proud liberal, and a New Jersey native. He served as an Infantryman in the U.S. Army and is a PTS and MST survivor. David is a devout Episcopal, a feminist, sex positive, and a strong supporter of LGBT rights. The only strong hatreds he has are toward the Boston Red Sox, The New England Patriots, and The New York Rangers.
